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Anthony Joshua won’t replace trainer Rob McCracken

By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua is calling people “shallow-minded, Small-minded” for them suggesting that he replace his trainer Rob McCracken to help him with his December 7th rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. Rather than the advice given by fans and former fighters trying to be helpful, Joshua has refused, and is labeling the people as “small-minded.”

It’s not exactly the nicest way for a fighter to respond to boxing fans trying to help him, but he at least is being consistent. Recently, Joshua went after Lennox Lewis after he recommended that he change trainers, and fight Ruiz in the U.S or Mexico. In response to that advice, Joshua called Lewis a “clown.”

If Ruiz Jr. crushes Joshua in the December 7th rematch, boxing fans will want McCracken gone. One would could say that even Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will gently suggest that he replace McCracken, because a second loss for AJ would hurt him. Hearn can’t just stand by and let Joshua steer his career into the rocks without stepping in to try help. Sometimes fighters need a little help with their decision-making, and that’s promoters are for.

Joshua says it’s “shallow” to ask him to replace McCracken

“I should never get rid of those types of people. Because I lost the belts I should get rid of the people that built me? No way,” said Joshua to skysports.com. “It’s shallow-minded, small-minded. Mike Tyson could have lost to anyone but you can’t get rid of [his trainer] Cus D’Amato. People do not truly understand what these people mean to your life,” said Joshua in putting McCracken in the same class as Cus D’Amato.

Joshua sounds a little angry at the fans, and it’s hard to understand why. AJ is shooting the messenger by leveling his sights on his fans instead of considering what they’re saying, and perhaps bringing in a second trainer. A second trainer would help Joshua potentially repair the mistakes that he made against Ruiz Jr. last June. Trainers are supposed to help their fighters in fixing their mistakes. In looking at Joshua’s seventh round knockout loss to Ruiz Jr. on June 1, he showed these flaws:

Most of those things are areas that should have been addressed by McCracken years ago. If they were looked at by McCracken, then they weren’t fixed. Joshua should have never walked into the ring looking he was ready to participate in a Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition against Ruiz. That comes down to McCracken letting Joshua bulk up, and compete with all that useless muscle. If Joshua loses the rematch with Ruiz, then he’s going to have even more fans telling him to replace McCracken. Hopefully, he’s prepared for that. It would be helpful if Joshua doesn’t refer to the fans as “small-minded” when they tell him to dump McCracken.

Joshua needs a conditioning coach

Perhaps all Joshua needs is a good conditioning coach rather than a change of trainers to help him recapture his world titles. But still, even a a fitness coach won’t be able to do much if Joshua continues to life weights, and carry so much oxygen depleting muscles. Joshua’s performances against Dillian Whyte, Ruiz and Wladimir Kitschko showed that he can’t carry 240 to 250+ pounds of muscle in his fights. He gassed out of all of those fights, and took many rounds to try and get a second wind.

“You can’t take that away. You can take the belts away – they will be gone when I retire. The man that they built? You can’t take that away,” said Joshua.

When Joshua fought in the low 220s in the amateurs, he didn’t have stamina problems. He was able to fight hard without gassing out. The easily solution to Joshua’s stamina problems would be for him to get back down to 220, and then stay away from the weight room. He probably won’t do that, because he seems to like lifting weights.

The way Joshua looked completely lost against Ruiz, it might be impossible for him to fix his flaws with his current trainer. McCracken looked flustered in the corner after Joshua was knocked down twice by Ruiz in round 3. Rob was barking instructions, and looked like he’d lost his senses completely.